Teresina DeAlmeida, 59, a former assistant dean at an Essex County graduate school, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison after defrauding her employer out of more than $1.3 million. The scheme took place from 2009 to 2022 and involved two co-conspirators, Rose Martins and Silvia Cardoso, who also pleaded guilty to wire fraud.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey revealed that DeAlmeida manipulated her position, overseeing the school’s financial operations, to misappropriate funds through several fraudulent methods. These included fake vendor payments, using school-issued credit cards for personal purchases, ordering gift cards, and even creating a shell company to submit false invoices.
DeAlmeida and her accomplices altered financial documents, causing the school significant financial harm. In addition to her prison sentence, DeAlmeida was sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of approximately $1.4 million.
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger emphasized the seriousness of the crime, stating, “The defendant abused her position of trust as an assistant dean to orchestrate an elaborate embezzlement scheme for more than a decade.”
This case highlights the severity of financial fraud and the justice system’s commitment to holding perpetrators accountable.
